The UK government is to invest £900m in a cutting-edge supercomputer as part of an artificial intelligence strategy that includes ensuring the country can build its own "BritGPT". The treasury outlined plans to spend around £900m on building an exascale computer, which would be several times more powerful than the UK's biggest computers, and establishing a new AI research body. An exascale computer can be used for training complex AI models, but also have other uses across science, industry and defence, including modelling weather forecasts and climate projections. The Treasury said the £900m investment will "allow researchers to better understand climate change, power the discovery of new drugs and maximise our potential in AI.". An exascale computer is one that can carry out more than one billion billion simple calculations a second, a metric known as an "exaflops".

MIT engineers have designed a walking lunar robot cleverly inspired by the animal kingdom. The "mix-and-match" system is made of worm-like robotic limbs astronauts could configure into various "species" of robots resembling spiders, elephants, goats and oxen. The team won the Best Paper Award last week at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Aerospace Conference. WORMS (Walking Oligomeric Robotic Mobility System) is one team's vision of a future where astronauts living on a moon base delegate activities to robotic minions. However, to avoid "a zoo of machines" with various robots for every task imaginable, the modular WORMS would allow astronauts to swap out limbs, bases and appendages for the task at hand.

But why would people opt to have a metaverse wedding? And will these sorts of ceremonies--especially sponsored ones--stick around, or will they fade away if virtual reality doesn't live up to the hype? China's annual, week-long parliamentary meeting ended on Monday. Among all the changes it announced, there's one that the tech world is avidly watching: the creation of a new regulatory body named the National Data Administration. The NDA will help build smart cities in China, digitize government services, improve internet infrastructure, and make government agencies share data with each other.

BRIAN KENNY: Artificial intelligence or AI for short is certainly creating a lot of buzz these days. And although it may seem like this amorphous thing that's somewhere off in our future, it's already very much in our midst. Navigation apps have turned printed maps into relics. Alexa, knows what you need from the grocery store before you do. Google Nest has the house at just the right temperature before you roll out from under the covers. And this is all great, but now you have to wonder if this intro is written by me or chat GPT. Which raises an important question.

The growing potential of generative AI is clouded by its possible harms, prompting some calls for regulation. ChatGPT and other generative AI have taken centerstage for innovation with companies racing to introduce their own respective twists on the technology. Questions about the ethics of AI have likewise escalated with ways the technology could spread misinformation, support hacking attempts, or raise doubts about the ownership and validity of digital content. The issue of ethics and AI is not new, according to Cynthia Rudin, the Earl D. McLean, Jr. professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, statistical science, mathematics, and biostatistics & bioinformatics at Duke University She says AI recommender systems already have been pointed to for such ills as contributing to depression among teenagers, algorithms amplifying hate speech that spurred the 2017 Rohingya massacre in Myanmar, vaccine misinformation, and the spread of propaganda that contributed to insurrection in the United States on January 6, 2021. "If we haven't learned our lesson about ethics by now, it's not going to be when ChatGPT shows up," says Rudin.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday said the U.S. will not stop flights in international airspace after a Russian fighter jet clipped a U.S. drone propeller, causing a crash into the Black Sea. The U.S. said on Tuesday two Russian SU-27 warplanes harassed and struck down an unmanned U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters, forcing it to crash into the Black Sea in what could be described as "coercive signaling." If a Russia warplane is found to have purposefully downed the sophisticated $32 million intelligence collecting drone, it will be the first time the U.S. and Russia have directly exchanged blows since the war in Ukraine began. Though Moscow has denied downing the drone and claimed it crashed on its own, one report by the RAND Corporation released last year suggests this could align with Russia's known use of coercive tactics. An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft is parked in a hanger at Creech Air Force Base on Nov. 17, 2015 in Indian Springs, Nevada.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday said the U.S. will not stop flights in international airspace after a Russian fighter jet clipped a U.S. drone propeller, causing a crash into the Black Sea. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday the U.S. will not stop flights in international airspace after a Russian fighter jet clipped a U.S. drone propeller, causing a crash into the Black Sea. "I know that everyone here has heard that Russian aircraft again engaged in dangerous, reckless and unprofessional practices on Tuesday in international airspace over the Black Sea," Austin said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks before a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on March 15, 2023, at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Austin quickly summarized the incident, explaining, "Two Russian jets dumped fuel on an unmanned U.S. MQ-9 aircraft conducting routine operations in international airspace. And one Russian jet intercepted and hit our MQ-9 aircraft, resulting in a crash."

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday said the U.S. will not stop flights in international airspace after a Russian fighter jet clipped a U.S. drone propeller, causing a crash into the Black Sea. A race between the U.S. and Russia is underway to secure the debris of the drone that crashed into the Black Sea. Russian officials announced Wednesday that operations were underway to collect the debris of the downed U.S. drone -- the country has denied responsibility for the incident. An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) flies by during a training mission at Creech Air Force Base on Nov. 17, 2015, in Indian Springs, Nevada. U.S. officials say a Russian fighter jet clipped the U.S. drone's propeller while traveling in international airspace, causing the crash.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize industries across the board, it's no surprise that it's making waves in the world of cybersecurity. With the emergence of powerful language models like ChatGPT, the potential for AI to disrupt the industry is enormous. The rise of AI-powered cybersecurity has already seen a significant reduction in response times to cyber threats and malware attacks. By leveraging the power of machine learning, ChatGPT can analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, identifying patterns and anomalies that may go unnoticed by human analysts. But ChatGPT's potential extends far beyond simply detecting and responding to threats. The technology's ability to adapt and learn means it can evolve alongside emerging threats, providing a more proactive defense against future attacks.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds told Fox News' Jennifer Griffin Tuesday at a Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute summit that he is angered by Russian fighter jet colliding with a U.S. drone over international waters. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds described himself as "p---ed off" following the reported collision of a Russian fighter jet with a U.S. military drone. U.S. military command alleged Tuesday that a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on a U.S. drone over the Black Sea, clipped the drone's propeller and forced it into the water. Asked by Fox News' Jennifer Griffin for his feelings on the matter, Rounds. R-S.D., said he was "p---ed off."